First, I would like to express my thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley and the author who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Stein has written a refreshingly good mystery, Brooklyn Secrets, the third in the Erica Donato series. This is my first delve into the Erica Donato series, and I had no idea that it was book three when I began reading. This is not a concern as this book serves well as a stand-alone. Oh, yes, and I will be returning to Triss Stein’s Erica Donato Mysteries Brooklyn series.
As the name implies, Erica Donato is a Brooklyn girl. She is also a single mother, a widow, and a graduate student trying to achieve her masters degree in the urban history. Busy gal. Erica is working on her thesis paper, a research of the 1930’s era Brownsville neighborhood. Brownsville was a seedy neighborhood then, and the infamous Murders, Inc. Mob assasins group emerged from the poor neighborhood where the boys were always fighting. There were many 1930’s gangs in Brownsville, and there were various ethnic groups in the neighborhood. From Jewish to Blacks to Italians to Irish if memory serves me correctly. Brownsville was much the same today, still very poor, education levels were low. The main difference was that today it was mostly Black.
While conducting her field research in a Brownsville library, Erica becomes acquainted with the employees of the local library. Among these is a girl, Savannah, called Savvie, who is a senior in high school and the apple of the library people’s eye, and her mother’s, too. This is because she is a very smart student who has applied herself diligently and earned her way out of Brownsville to a very prominent college. Things are looking good for Savvie, when a few days later she is beaten close to death and remains in a comma. Her mother, whom it turns out is a distant acquaintance from the past of Erica, moves into action and goes so far as to organize and throw a very successful demonstration rally. One of Savvie’s friends, D’Andre, who worked at the library wants to tell something to Erica after the demonstration, a secret that Savvie kept? D’Andre is found dead.
Was there more to sweet, smart, innocent Savannah that Erica previously thought? Although curious, Erica still has that thesis hanging. She needs to stay on track with this, but then she meets two older women from Brownsville who were young during the 1930’s and they agree to share stores rich with flavor and history. One of the ladies requests that if Erica should happen to run across anything about her brother who was killed back then, that Erica share this information.
Triss Stein has written a story well told here. The Brownsville history combined with the fiction works very well and she is quite detailed about this. Narration of the story is a very important part which is told from Erica’s point of view. This book is quite hard to put down and moves at a pretty fast pace. However, it is not a book driven to this point by continuous violence, gore and multiple crimes. I found this book very enjoyable and would have no problem recommending it to this genre’s readers. I would say a 3.75 stars to round up to a 4-star.